I tend to write tomes here in my tasting reviews, primarily because this platform serves as a place not only to keep my tasting notes, but to help me retain a whisky diary. You see, I like to remember my experience of a bottle as well as what the whisky tasted like. For example, Maker's Mark is dear to my heart, not only because they make solid bourbon, but because one sunny afternoon back in 2005, with the spring coming on, my buddies Peter and Luke and I killed a bottle of your standard 90-proof Maker's Mark over the course of what I remember being just a wonderful afternoon, sitting on Peter's front porch, conversing on all manner of topics. What did we talk about? Not sure I can remember now. Not sure I could remember the next day, but the memory of being with my friends and drinking whisky and laughing a lot has stuck with me and added to my fondness of Maker's Mark. So, if you'll bear with me, this is part of the explanation of why my "tastings" are so involved. In any case, this review should (I hope) be shorter. It's been a while since I've laid out money for a budget bourbon. Maybe six months ago, I picked up Evan Williams Bottled in Bond to give it a taste test against Jim Beams Old Tub, and Old Tub was solidly the winner there, but these days I tend to go higher end, so I tend not to dip into the $20-$30 category too often. This Evan Williams 1783 was an impulse buy. I was walking past the Spirits store and popped in, and this was on the shelf for $19.99, and I thought, why not? Again, wondering if there's a budget bourbon out there that could displace Old Tub in my heart. And this gives it a go. If you're familiar with the Evan Williams lineup, this 1783 Small Batch is much better than Black Label and slightly better than Bottled in Bond (otherwise known as White Label); I have a bottle of Single Barrel that I haven't opened yet in my collection, so I don't know if it's better than that, but it's certainly worth the $20 price tag. The nose is oaky and sweet, but not cloyingly so. I can see why the expert review compares it to an oatmeal raisin cookie, because the sweetness has something of raisins and nutmeg/cinnamon in the aroma, and the flavor profile is undemanding but satisfying if you're expecting this to be what it's marketed as. If you go in expecting more, you'd be disappointed, but if you expected more...well, what can I say? This isn't a whisky that's going to rock your world, but it will satisfy those who like fairly standard and straightforward bourbon flavors without breaking the bank. Because I can get Old Tub for $17 and because I like it a slight bit more, that's still the king of bourbons under $25 for me. But I could see myself buying this 1783 again, especially when the stores run out of stock of Old Tub. As a side note, while drinking this I started to think, you know how you're always seeing 10 best lists on whisky review sites? One of them you never see is 10 best whiskies to put in a flask when you're headed out to a concert, say, or a show where you know you'll be able to sneak one in. With a flask, of course, nose doesn't particularly matter since you're not going to be sniffing it before it hits your palate. And the nose on this is decent but I'd put this high on a list of flask whiskies, given it's price and strength and the fact it goes down smoothly for what it is. So how about the rest of you out there? Ever use a flask, or is that sort of frowned upon once you start taking whisky seriously? And if you use one, what would be your top flask whiskies?